The Raijinshuu Let it Snow
by writerkitty440
Summary: It's winter, the weather is lousy and having taken the job from heck, Laxus and his teammates are beginning to feel the cold. Tired and grumpy, they can't seem to keep off each other's nerves. Will they be able to hold together while they finish the job and head back to Magnolia? Or will their bickering cause them to leave empty-handed and worse- damage teammates' relationships?
1. Chapter 1

The wind howled outside the cave and blew the snow around like grains of sand in a dust storm. Within its rocky walls, four frozen mages huddled around a fire.

"We end this tomorrow," growled Laxus.

All three members of his personal guard cheered despite their obvious fatigue, and smiling faces peeked out from under the blankets around their shoulders.

The job was easy enough for such a strong team of wizards, but the working conditions were proving to be less than pleasant. The request was from a small village at the bottom of a mountain, of course, in winter. It was obviously going to be a little bit uncomfortable, but the Thunder Legion wouldn't be frightened off by a little bad weather. It wasn't until they'd arrived that they had realized just what they were in for.

At first, they'd planned on finding an inn to stay at. Much to their dismay, there hadn't been one, or a room for rent, or even a floor they'd be permitted to crash on. That alone might not have been too bad, but it had only been the start of their rotten luck, and everything after that had just snowballed.

Some snow blew into the cave and dangerously close to the dwindling fire. Laxus grunted and tried to tend to the dying flame before it could go out completely. The smiles disappeared.

"You're really sure you can't do anything?" asked Evergreen, driving a sharp elbow into Freed's side. She seemed almost angry.

"Can you?" he shot back, brushing away her arm and pulling his blanket tighter.

She pouted and elbowed him again. "Well you were talking about how those temperature runes or whatever-"

He interrupted her, "Don't work, Ever. They don't work. And it's not like I didn't still write them!"

While Freed and Evergreen bickered, Laxus' efforts with the fire were beginning to pay off. It started to grow again, started to reach for some new wood, started to catch and recover, and then- _Fwoosh._ Almost out again.

He swore and grabbed some more kindling from a soggy pile of sticks that he and Bixlow had collected earlier. It made no sense to him how anyone survived outside in this weather, let alone a few knuckleheaded amateur mages- from a city, nonetheless.

That was, perhaps, the most confusing detail in the job description. A dark guild, "nearby", had been attacked and destroyed by another wizard team recently, but local sources claimed a few members had escaped and were hiding out on the mountain causing trouble. The job was to catch them. As they'd later learned, the guild had been much closer to a minor city the Thunder Legion had passed through on their way to the town, where people had seemed to firmly believe that this area was nothing but rocks and ice. The entire thing just seemed suspicious.

Time passed slowly as the Thunder Legion and their beloved leader waited for the storm to pass. Useless chattering, groans and complaints, and the occasional suggestion to try to improve the situation all mixed into a lethargic blur with each passing hour. It wasn't long before they were all snoring by the fireside. Well, almost all of them.

Freed laid curled up on the cave's icy floor close to Evergreen and Bixlow and tried not to shiver. If he couldn't keep himself at least somewhat still, he doubted he'd be able to sleep, but if he was too still, he'd be too cold to sleep. He wished they'd decided to huddle, or that the fire could've been bigger, or that his seemingly useless runes would suddenly kick in and warm the whole cave like a heater, but the reality didn't change. It was cold, he was stuck in a cave, and in the morning he would be the only one who hadn't slept since before they entered the town.

On the other side of the campfire, Laxus was almost as loud as the thunder he caused with his magic, but the snores still seemed to waver, as if he was shivering. That was just an additional complication- the most powerful wizard for miles, cold and grumpy, and from years of experience, Freed had learned to be afraid of his teammate in such situations. The sooner this was over, the better.


	2. Chapter 2

Dim light shone in through the mouth of the cave. The storm had ended overnight and it was eerily calm. With no one to tend it, the fire had been reduced to dying embers and the incoming sunlight struck gleaming ice patches near the entrance.

Yawns and other weak sounds could be heard from around the smoking remnants of a campfire. Bixlow, more tolerant of the temperature than most, was the first to get up and welcome in the new day.

"Morning," he shouted cheerfully, and his dolls were quick to spring to life. His teammates, however, were considerably less enthusiastic.

Laxus grunted and clenched his blanket for a while before returning to the frigid and unpleasant waking world, but eventually stood up and started to stretch. Although things had been going kind of badly, he'd meant what he said about ending it. Winter camping was one of his least favorite things to do and he'd be damned if he spent another night in that cave.

Since Freed and Evergreen still hadn't budged, Bixlow tried again to wake them up. "Wakey wakey! Babies!" He leaned over as he shouted so he would be closer to the two sleeping mages. "Get up, get up," his spirits chimed in, fluttering around their heads.

Evergreen made a hostile whining noise before tearing off her blanket and turning it into a net for the irritating tiki dolls. She captured at least two of them in it before standing up and throwing it at Bixlow. "Alright I'm up!" she screamed.

He could've wasted time taking offense at his teammate's aggression, but she was always like that in the morning. On the bright side, he figured she'd yelled loudly enough to wake the dead, so Freed would be joining them any minute. He wasn't.

"C'mon, get up already…" After at least half an hour, Freed seemed hell-bent on staying "asleep." It was obvious he wasn't really sleeping, but for some reason he still appeared determined to stay on the cave floor.

Evergreen pulled at the blanket while Bixlow continued talking and had begun to poke the rune mage with a stick. It had been funny at first, but the humor had worn off rather quickly when they'd realized how grumpy he was.

"If you don't knock it off it's gonna be Laxus waking you up instead of us Freed," Evergreen warned him. That had been the official threat, and time was running out. Laxus had gone to relieve himself and if Freed wasn't ready to go by the time he got back, he hadn't exactly specified what he would do, but he'd strongly implied that it was something to be afraid of.

"Mmmp." Freed pulled back on the blanket and tried to turn his back to Bixlow and the stick.

Evergreen let go. For a moment it seemed as if the battle was over, but one more poke indicated otherwise. "You need to get up now," Bixlow said close to his ear. This time he sounded much less demanding, almost frightened, but to a sleep-deprived mind that meant less than it ought.

Freed took one hand off of the blanket, balled it into a fist and struck… If it didn't feel like Bixlow, and it couldn't be Evergreen...


End file.
